Editorial: Mayor directs police to cut off Owen parents

“If I lived there I wouldn’t want all that traffic,” said Belleville Mayor Ken Voigt at the May 6 regular meeting of the Belleville City Council.
He was referring to the report by Victoria Commons resident Tom Jones who said at least 100 cars are coming down Victorian Lane at 8 o’clock in the morning so parents can deliver their students to a place they can be dropped off and walk over the subdivision border to Owen Intermediate School.
Jones said at the recent Victoria Commons Homeowners Association meeting a resident showed the video he had of this traffic and said he was going to take it to Detroit newspapers. Jones said he thought he should bring it to the city council first.
“Why are we allowing this?” Mayor Voigt asked Police Chief Kris Faull. He said it should be posted.
Chief Faull said they have been doing it for 20 years. She said ever since the district cut back on buses it has gotten worse. She said since COVID, the parents don’t put their students on buses and deliver them and pick them up themselves. She said she sees the buses at the high school are half empty.
Mayor Voigt said to post that area as no standing or parking except by permit and make permits available to the residents.
The mayor is a retired Belleville police officer and pointed out to Faull that she was in charge of traffic enforcement.